Every year, about $153 billion in U.S. agricultural production is affected by Mexico’s tariffs against the United States, according to a study issued Thursday from Texas A&M University.

The study’s author, C. Parr Rosson III, director of the university’s Center for North American Studies in College Station, said if the agricultural tariffs are lifted, about 12,000 U.S. jobs would be restored, 1,550 of those in Texas.

The study, requested by the San Antonio-based Border Trade Alliance, breaks down affected agricultural production state by state, showing how Mexico targeted states where members of Congress have opposed cross-border trucking.

The bottom-line figure takes in every cost to produce the exports, from supplies to labor and transport. The tariffs were imposed as retaliation for the U.S.’s failure to continue cross-border trucking.

The alliance hopes to use the study to convince Congress to once again fund a cross-border trucking program it killed in 2009, leading to the tariffs.

President Barack Obama and Mexico President Felipe Calderón earlier this month announced negotiations for an agreement to start a permanent cross-border trucking program, allowing Mexican trucking companies and drivers to make U.S. deliveries beyond the border zone. But Congress first must approve funding for the U.S. Department of Transportation to authorize Mexican trucking companies to operate in the United States.

A cross-border trucking program would bring the United States into compliance with the North American Free Trade Agreement, which called for cross-border trucking to be phased in starting in December 1995.

Once the agreement has been signed, Mexico will reduce the percentage its retaliatory tariffs, covering both agricultural and manufactured goods, by half. The other half will be lifted when the United States begins authorizing Mexican trucking companies to make U.S. deliveries.

Agricultural goods account for about 70 of the 99 U.S. products on the tariff list, the Texas A&M report states. About 12 percent of all U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico are affected. Agricultural production in at least 41 states is affected by Mexico’s tariffs. Mexico targeted $2.4 billion in goods for tariffs annually. Mexico’s tariffs are applied to $1.5 billion of agricultural products a year, but it takes $153 billion in agricultural production to produce those goods, Rosson explained.

>>> On the jump page: The rest of the story &#151 plus top five states harmed by Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs

Top 5 states harmed by Mexico tariffs in agricultural production:

Iowa: $28.13 billion

California: $25.78 billion

Minnesota: $10.3 billion

North Carolina: $10.12 billion

Wisconsin: $9.52 billion

Source: Texas A&M University Center for North American Studies and Border Trade Alliance

The top five states harmed by the tariffs are Iowa, California, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin, according to the report’s list. Fourteen other states have impacts of at least $1 billion in agricultural production each. Hog production, cheeses and fresh produce are the hardest-hit categories.

“It appears California was hit hard (in 2009) because at the time the speaker of the House (now U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.) was from there,” Rosson said. “Nobody ever said that, but it makes sense politically.”

Texas, on the other hand, was spared much of the harmful effect of the Mexican agricultural tariffs. Despite Texas’ large agricultural sector and its proximity and high trade volumes with Mexico, the state’s agricultural production is only $194.07 million, according to the Texas A&M report.

“Texas kind of dodged the bullet on this,” Rossen said.Nelson Balido, Border Trade Alliance president, said he does not know how Mexico selected its tariffs, but he acknowledged that the states with the biggest negative effects are “union-heavy states.”

Truck driver unions have fought cross-border trucking since NAFTA was enacted in 1994, stating Mexican trucks and drivers are unsafe. Union leaders also said they did not want competition from Mexican long-haul carriers.

Balido said the alliance will take the information to Congress. “We are going to broadcast the information to them, explaining to them why we need their support for cross-border trucking.”